Who we are:

Future Earth Coasts is the new name for the longstanding Land Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) project.

The goal of LOICZ was “to provide the knowledge, understanding and prediction needed to allow coastal communities to assess, anticipate and respond to the interaction of global change and local pressures which determine coastal change.”

First started in 1993, LOICZ has involved scientists from across the globe investigating changes in the biology, chemistry and physics of the coastal zone. Since 2003 LOICZ expanded its areas of research to include social, political and economic sciences to better address the human dimensions of the coastal zone. Results have been published in peer-reviewed journals, books and a Report and Studies Series.From 2015, LOICZ has become a core project of the new Future Earth initiative under the new name of Future Earth Coasts.

We have ‘signposted’ our goals and expectations for Future Earth Coasts in a document to stimulate an open and wide ranging consultative and engagement process to develop a new ten year plan for Future Earth Coasts to generate the knowledge needed to advance sustainability of coastal socio-ecological and geographic systems.

Future Earth has been established by The Science and Technology Alliance for Global Sustainability, a partnership for global sustainability including researchers, funders and users of knowledge. It has a 10 year mandate to develop knowledge for responding effectively to the risks and opportunities of global environmental change and for supporting transformation towards global sustainability.

What we are:

We are first and foremost a ‘community’ of organisations, scientists and practitioners from all disciplines of science, engineering, the humanities and law whose work addresses Global Environmental Change.

We seek to develop links with those involved in policy-setting and governance of coastal regions across the World. We aim to be a platform for international engagement to ensure that knowledge is generated in partnership with society and users of science. We aim to support adaptation to global change by linking natural and social sciences with knowledge of coastal communities at global, regional and local scales.

Our Outputs are focussed on providing a knowledge base to address the risks and opportunities arising from global coastal change.

How we work:

Future Earth Coasts provides a platform for networking and providing ‘added value’ to the outputs of our community to explore and understand the drivers and social-environmental impacts of global environmental change in coastal zones.

We do this by providing opportunities for people to contribute to new outputs that address one of our three core themes. These outputs will build into our flagship outcome to identify new and alternate coastal futures to accelerate our transformations to a sustainable world from our current ‘business as usual’ unsustainable practices.

MaREI is a marine and renewable energy based research, development and innovation hub supported by Science Foundation Ireland. The Centre combines the expertise of a wide range of research groups and industry partners, with the shared mission of solving the main scientific, technical and socio-economic challenges across the marine and renewable energy spaces. Stakeholder engagement is a key aspect of MaREI research.

As well as working closely with industry, MaREI researchers also engage with policy makers, legislators, NGOs and community groups in the co-production and dissemination of knowledge for the ultimate benefit of society.

The International Project Office of Future Earth Coasts is grateful for the financial support provided by KOSMOS Energy.

Future Earth Coasts is the new name of the Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) project. Its mission is to support adaptation to global change by integrating scientific knowledge from all disciplines at global, regional and local scales.